On Aug. 25, Leonard Bernstein would have celebrated his 100th birthday. The classical music world, however, has turned all of 2018 into a celebration of the composer/conductor’s creations.

During its season at Walt Disney Concert Hall the Los Angeles Philharmonic devoted several concerts to Bernstein, including a complete performance of his spiritual magnum opus, Mass, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel.

Last Tuesday, the birthday party headed north offering a capacity crowd at the Hollywood Bowl to an all-Bernstein concert conducted by Dudamel that focused on the diverse influences that made up Bernstein’s multifaceted musical personality.

There was Bernstein the jazzman represented by the concert’s opening “Prelude, Fugue and Riffs” ripe with sophisticated rhythms, city-sounds in the night from muted trumpets and sultry saxophones, honky-tonk piano beats, climaxing with delicious solo for the orchestra’s new principal clarinetist, Boris Allakhverdyan.

The three “Meditations from Mass” featuring the emotionally sonorous playing of cellist Edgar Moreau, changed the mood entirely, projecting the more introverted, spiritually questing side of Bernstein. It’s spare modernist influences and hints of deeply felt Jewish musical roots offered a very different portrait of the artist.

Brian Stokes Mitchell (Courtesy photo)

But it was Bernstein the man of the Broadway stage that the audience was really waiting for. They were waiting to hear Brian Stokes Mitchell, a Broadway star baritone of the first order. They thought they were going to hear him sing with Kristen Chenoweth, but found she had been replaced by another perky Broadway talent, Sutton Foster.

Their first appearance was to the rollicking melodies of Bernstein’s “On the Town,” from 1944 with lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolf Green. It’s a wonderful show about a group of fancy-free sailors with one day to discover the joys of the Big Apple, “from Yonkers on down to the bay.”

Their duet version of “New York, New York,” ”It’s a hell of a town,” set the tone, though Foster seemed a bit lost with the acoustical challenges of the Bowl, having more than once to sneak up on the ideal pitch.

Mitchell, however, no stranger to the Bowl, knocked his rendition of “Some Other Time” out of the park, projecting all the warmth of personality and ability to sell a song that makes him such a superb performer.

I personally think the musical “Wonderful Town” is a second-rate show, filled with Bernstein’s most namby-pamby music tacked on to a light weight plot. That being said, Mitchell’s delivery of the hard-boiled cynicism of “What a Waste” was as good as it can be, and Foster’s comedic turns singing “100 Easy Ways” to lose a man, proved charming.

Because Tuesdays are traditionally classical music nights, the emphasis was placed on Bernstein the composer, including the “Times Square Ballet” from “On the Town” and the “Symphonic Dances” from “West Side Story,” which have long been a signature part of Dudamel’s repertory. Brilliant as they were, it seemed impossible that with the quality of vocal power available there wouldn’t be a single song from Bernstein’s greatest musical?

So, as a skillfully planed encore, Mitchell and Foster came on stage to fill the void with a soaring version of “Tonight” that sent everyone home with Lenny’s melodies ringing in the ears.

A side note: If you have not seen the exhibition at the Skirball Cultural Center, “Leonard Bernstein at 100,” which continues through Sept. 2, it is the perfect way to keep the party going. Be sure to see the famous Bernstein baton that Dudamel used (and shattered) during his premiere with the New York Philharmonic! For information, visit skirball.org.